I'm new to the boards here and don't know if this has been proven or discussed on here at all but I think it would be cool to see if it does happen in reality.

I've worked on cars all my life and have heard even from manufacturers of headlight bulbs that the oils on your fingers will reduce the life of your headlight bulb, but also have heard a myth of the headlight will fail immediately when turned on and explode in the headlight due to the oil on your hands cause the glass to fail. I've never tried it nor had a chance to find a junk headlight enclosure and power it up and do the experiment myself and I'm guessing it could be pretty dangerous if proven that the bulbs will explode sending glass flying everywhere. Also keep in mind higher wattage halogens bulbs create more heat thus probably creating more of a probability of the bulb popping.

Respectfully submitted,
Marco

I've also heard this, mainly with respect for the bulbs used in overhead projectors, as well as halogen or mercury vapor lights, like used in gymnasiums, they should test this!

i think that this is partially true, because halogen bulbs are heating very much and oil with glass will expand differently than only glass, so there will be big tension in glass, which causes cracks on glass, but I don't think that this will explode.